Hey Guys,

we are currently finishing our 34 Days Road Trips thru the USA. We started in Los Angeles and made our
Way to Miami already. We are now Enjoying our Time at the Beach. I want to share some Impressions from that Trip to encourage all of you to explore the USA. For us the it is the second Road Trip as a Family and by far the longest. (Prior to this one we did a 14 Day West Coast Road Trip in 2014)

So our Route was :

LA
Gilroy
San Francisco
Monterey
Mammoth Lake
Yosemite
Las Vegas
Tusayan (Grand Canyon South Rim)
Mogollon (Ghost Town)
Deming
Midway
Forth Worth/Dallas
Galveston
Vinton
New Orleans
Tallahassee
Wakulla State Park
Jacksonville Beach
Cocoa Beach
Hollywood Beach (Miami)
Key West
Everglades

Actually we did not planned that Route we decided Day to Day what we would like to do and how far we can go.
That has obv. the Advantage of Flexibility but comes with the Burden of not knowing in Advance when you will do what and is more costly.

I will split that Road Trip in 3 or 4 Parts to have it more readable and since i will share some Pictures if i put it all in one Post, it will load forever :)

We started with 2 Days in Long Beach and tried to overcome the Jet Lag. Day one was a stop at the Ontario Mill Outlet which is located 45 Minutes est to LA.

The freshly renovated Hyatt Hotel was quite nice and had a nice Gym. The Walk to the Beach is 15 Minutes and you pass the Marina with a wonderful Pier with a lot of Restaurants ans small Shops.

The Quality of the Beach is quite OK even if a lot of People complain about the Water Quality.

The Kids enjoyed it and the View is quite impressive.

We had the Plan to take the Ocean Highway, but since it was Traffic Jam after Traffic Jam we decided to bypass and used the Interstate to SF. We made a short stop and found serious Wildlife :)

In San Francisco we started with Pier 39 and bought us some Pullover because it was very windy and cold.
Pier 39 is a usually totally loaded with tourists, but it is worth the Visit.

The Souvenir Shop had some cool Stuff especially if you look for some Presents for your Family.

And some Things which are really crazy :)

Next Stop was the Cable Car Station near the Pier 39 for a Ride with the Historic Cable Car.

We jumped of the Cable Car and did a Walk thru Chinatown back to Pier 39

We decided to have some Seafood and got a Seaside Table @BubbaGump

Of Course we had to visit the Golden Gate Bridge and we had our first Meeting with a Bear Family in Wildlife...

Quite often People are complaining about the Fog, we had a absolute Perfect Day and took some nice Photos.

We started next Day from Monterey to our next Hotel in Mammoth Mountain via the Yosemite Park.

We had Lunch in a really nice small Town with an Tavern which had nice Flair.

We decided to give the Yosemite Valley a quick Visit and we did not Regret it...

The Nature was so fascinating that you cannot stop to take Photos like this one:

or this...

or this....

We finally arrived in our Lodge in Mammoth Mountain after a long Day

Next Day we decided to go a bit Hicking and discover the National Monument Devils Postpile and Rainbow Waterfalls

The Trails are not real Challenge and you can decide how far you want to go since every Mile is a Bus Stop where you can hop on or off.

We found new Friends, there was a Clan of Chipmunks begging for Nuts. (Don't feed the Wildlife!)

Our Kids hoped they can swim under the Waterfalls, but actually the Stairs down were closed so a Photo was everything we got...

here you can clearly see, why they call him Rainbow Waterfalls:

next Day we decided to go back to Yosemite, to visit the Mammoth Trees and swim in a Lake.
Since the Mariposa Grove is still closed we had to drive quite a bit. When you enter the Yosemite form Mono Lake, you are on a quite high Elevation (11K Feet).

We could not believe what we saw close to the Entrance, SNOW! We had like 80+ Degrees Fahrenheit...

more SNOW...

after that we found a beautiful Valley, where we had a Sandwich and Ice Cream.

we found finally the Mammoth Trees, very impressive!

There were like 10 of these Gigantic Old Trees you can see.

On or way out we passed a nice Lake and decided to Jump in, it was quite cold :)

That's it for Part one, if there is enough Interest i will post the Rest of our Road Trip in 2-3 more Parts.

jadefalke